2. The Structure of the Earth and Plate Tectonics

3. What is Plate Tectonics?

4. If you look at a map of the world, you may notice that some of the continents could fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

5. Plate Tectonics The Earth’s crust is divided into 12 major plates which are moved in various directions. This plate motion causes them to collide, pull apart, or scrape against each other. Each type of interaction causes a characteristic set of Earth structures or “tectonic” features. The word, tectonic, refers to the deformation of the crust as a consequence of plate interaction.

6. World Plates

7. What are tectonic plates made of? Plates are made of rigid lithosphere. The lithosphere is made up of the crust and the upper part of the mantle.

8. What lies beneath the tectonic plates? Below the lithosphere (which makes up the tectonic plates) is the asthenosphere.

9. Plate Movement “Plates” of lithosphere are moved around by the underlying hot mantle convection cells

10. Three types of plate boundary Divergent Convergent Transform

11. Divergent Boundaries Spreading ridges As plates move apart new material is erupted to fill the gap

12. Iceland: An example of continental rifting Iceland has a divergent plate boundary running through its middle

13. Convergent Boundaries There are three styles of convergent plate boundaries Continent-continent collision Continent-oceanic crust collision Ocean-ocean collision

14. Continent-Continent Collision Forms mountains,e.g. European Alps, Himalayas

15. Himalayas

16. Continent-Oceanic Crust Collision Called SUBDUCTION

17. Subduction Oceanic lithosphere subducts underneath the continental lithosphere Oceanic lithosphere heats and dehydrates as it subsides The melt rises forming volcanism E.g. The Andes

18. When two oceanic plates collide, one runs over the other which causes it to sink into the mantle forming a subduction zone. The subducting plate is bent downward to form a very deep depression in the ocean floor called a trench. Ocean-Ocean Plate Collision

19. Transform Boundaries Where plates slide past each other Above: View of the San Andreas transform fault

21. Volcanoes and Plate Tectonics… …what’s the connection?

22. Pacific Ring of Fire Volcanism is mostly focused at plate margins

23. Volcanoes are formed by: - Subduction - Rifting - Hotspots

24. Pacific Ring of Fire Hotspot volcanoes

25. What are Hotspot Volcanoes? Hot mantle plumes breaching the surface in the middle of a tectonic plate The Hawaiian island chain are examples of hotspot volcanoes. Photo: Tom Pfeiffer / www.volcanodiscovery.com

26. The tectonic plate moves over a fixed hotspot forming a chain of volcanoes. The volcanoes get younger from one end to the other.

27. Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics… …what’s the connection?

28. As with volcanoes, earthquakes are not randomly distributed over the globe At the boundaries between plates, friction causes them to stick together. When built up energy causes them to break, earthquakes occur. Figure showing the distribution of earthquakes around the globe

29. Where do earthquakes form? Figure showing the tectonic setting of earthquakes